Happy Halloween

Said the wind to the Moon, "I will blow you out!"

"You stare

In the air

Like a ghost in a chair,

Always looking what I am about ---

I hate to be watched;  I'll blow you out".

A Few More Finds

More thrift finds - you know I am always searching for new things to put in the shop. Pretty vintage dancers:

A Floraline matte white pot, and a shiny glaze candle holder, along with a pretty floral remnant:

A pair of chess pieces and also a lovely pair of lidded trinket boxes:

You saw this in the background - the brightest afghan I have ever bought! I couldn't resist the beautiful color combination:

Some may think this sequined calendar is gaudy, but not me....

..I think it's bright and pretty, and I plan to use it in 2014 when the dates will be right!

The Emporium was a wonderful department store. I love old gift boxes; this one was holding silverware at the thrift store and I asked if I could buy it!

This bright pink piggy bank is just like the green one I've had since I was a teenager! Couldn't pass it up:

And I found some vintage games, too - Mickey Mouse:

And Mad Magazine:

Wishing you a wild and wacky day! And may your thrift shop jaunts be fruitful.

More Treats Than Tricks

What can I say? I've been having WAY too many treats lately! I came home with this pretty little box last week. See's Fall Harvest Box , a small assortment.....

Which just happens to have a few of my favorites inside:

Lori and I went up to Apple Hill in Camino when I was over there, and I brought home little block of Penuche Nut Fudge from the Fudge Factory Farm:

And I bought a mini Sour Cream Apple Pie there, as well:

I snagged some of Lori's Snack Mix that she had made for her Tahoe retreat and brought it home:

And there were two of these cupcakes left over, which I had taken as a little dessert treat for everyone when we sisters had dinner with friends. They looked prettier before they got messed up on the way home:

It didn't hurt the taste any, though.
Needless to say, I've not exactly been a good Weight Watcher here lately.
I'll get back with it, I promise!
(Is it acceptable to use my birthday as an excuse?
 Oh - not the whole month, you say?
Whoops.)

Rainbow Day

It was a rainy day this past Wednesday, but as I drove over to Placerville , the sun tried to come out, and ended up successful. For quite a few miles at the end of my journey, I was treated to the most beautiful rainbow in the sky! It was the day after my birthday and I was looking forward to dinner with my sisters and four other women who are very dear, longtime friends.

How beautiful it was!

Halloween Stuff

Just a few things I have found lately for Halloween - decorations, and this cute vintage costume pattern:

These silly little guys with faces somebody put on:

And, quite possibly the cutest party invitations ever:

If you're headed to a party this weekend, have fun!!

Mood For An October Night

Mood For An October Night, by Edith Hope Genee

A gold October moon rides high tonight -
Outside, a cricket wind is stirring -
Blossoming stars turn on their silver light,
And yesterday's poplar leaves go whirring
Down the gale; dreams are in the arch
Of sky, deep cobalt in the midnight's glow,
And there are little songs that swiftly march
Down moon-paths waiting here below.
 Tonight I wear my whitest gown for you,
 And there are roses in the candle gloom -
 Gypsy music floats across the room
 With torch-songs, sung to rhythms, hazy-blue;
 And there are tears, as there are always tears
 For new loves, new dreams, and never-ending years.

But where is that other gay October moon?
Where are the stars I gathered in my hand?
Where is the dream set to the ragged tune,
And the night that was a midnight magic-land?
Where are the roses? Grains of petal-dust?
And the song that ached in a thrush's throat?
And the poplar leaves? Are they, too silver-rust,
While the cricket is gone and the winds are far - remote  -
 I press the arrows of another song
 Into my heart; bind up the raveled edges
 Of a dream, and with some silly pledges,
 Put them away where all lost things belong.
 But always through October's smoky track
 Of stars, the ghosts of little songs come back!

Another poem from my vintage book "Brief Aprils", and the illustration is from the book as well;  the artist's name is Don Blanding.

Scrapbook/Stamp Retreat Gifties

Sister Lori here:

Every October I go to a Retreat in Lake Tahoe, 18 women in a huge 7 bedroom home. We have made this an annual event for over 10 years. Everyone brings their own stuff to work on and we do some swaps.

 We always do a secret sister swap of various gifties. They can be hand made or store bought. Normally I don't have time to create, however this time I was low on funds, but have tons of craft inventory so I got busy and made up my gifties. We are all consultants for a wonderful stamping/scrap booking company
Close To My Heart ( http://love3grands.ctmh.com ), so normally gifts are made with items we sell, so they could be recreated for a workshop for customers. Here are the items I made:
A container from Big Lots filled with a Harvest Snack Mix found on Pinterest with a skeleton design on top made with our CTMH cricut cartridge [which is awesome by the way!!]

 This is a window box made with the cricut cartridge and I turned it into a mini kleenex box for a small pack of kleenex. It could also be filled with treats of some sort and cover the window from inside with transparancy film.

 This is a cover for a jr legal pad, which I have cut down the middle by Office Max to make it skinnier. The pen is an RSVP pen from Dollar Tree and you open up the end, roll up pretty scrapbook paper and insert, then close pen back up.

               Pretty easel desk calendar for the next year, easily mailable, so a nice gift for far away.

                                                   
                                                           Just a pretty little card to use.

                                      Small post it notes with a cover and cute little pen attached.

They all really enjoyed the gifts and I will have to do a few more posts showing some of the things we made and the gifts I received while there. Got home just in time, too, the snow started the night we came home!!

The Mystery of the Rose

My husband and I have had a disagreement.  It is over this rose bush.

He planted the rose on the west side of the garage between the Cherokee Rose and the purple flowering sage.  It is not very big yet but blooming well after the first good rainstorm of the season.

The other day while we were enjoying the weather and returning the hanging planters to their places on the front porch after I filled them with pansies, he commented on the rose bush growing below the porch, fully in bloom, and then said as he ran down the stairs "Cheri's rose looks really good too."

When he came back with another heavy pot and we placed it on the hook, I said,"what did you mean, Cheri's rose?"  He said, "the rose she gave us by the garage." Above is a picture of that rose in our back yard in April 2011.  Cheri is my sister-in-law.  Hubby and I each have conflicting stories of where this rose came from. I have decided that one of these 3 things is happening:  1) My husband is going crazy.  2) I am going crazy. 3) My husband is trying to make me think I am going crazy.

Cheri is my sister-in-law. Hubby says that at some point in the last year, she came by his work and brought him this rose as some kind of a birthday present.  I find the present idea rather odd, because I know it wasn't a present for my birthday, which was just last August, and hubby's birthday is in February, and that is a really odd time of year to give someone a rose.  He says she gave it to him and he came home and planted it right then. (Another reason February wouldn't be likely.) His memory of this whole supposed-happening is very vague... when was this? why was this? what is Cheri, who lives in a rented home and isn't much of a gardener, and has never taken much of an interest in our yard, giving us a rose as a present for in the first place?

Now, I of course have a completely different story of the rose.  I went with a friend to a yard sale in Placerville off Coloma Street in the lower front yard of the Nick Fox House.  The sale was put on by the Heritage Society and a couple of friends of mine were selling there.  I bought several old urns that I now use on the front porch and have begonias in them, and this rose, which at the time had one bloom on it, and was rather straggly but showed promise.  I placed it on the deck, and there it sat, since my hip was not in great shape, and I wasn't sure where we should plant it.  I had my operation last December, and through the winter and spring didn't get outside much, and by the time I did, I discovered hubby had planted the rose by the side of the garage.  I had to water it frequently all through this past very hot summer, but it did well and seems to be surviving the poor soil and heat.

To confuse the issue even more, last spring at a garden sale at my ladies club, I bought another rose which sat for a while on the deck and hubby planted in the early summer in the little flower bed below our front porch.  So when I told him that "Cheri's rose" was my "Nick Fox House rose" he said "you're thinking of the rose by the front porch" and I said, "no, I bought that rose at the Shakespeare Club garden sale".  I tried several times to tell him about the yard sale and the Nick Fox House, but being the stubborn man he is, he refused to listen to my side of the story.

This rose above is the rose from the Shakespeare garden sale, it is white and has a couple of ground covers surrounding it which were in the pot with the rose when I bought it.

When we left off our "conversation" about the mystery rose, hubby said he is going to ask his sister when it was she brought the rose by his work, and why. (I find the fact he can't really "remember" the why and when rather telling...) That was a few days ago and no mention of it yet...

Meanwhile, I don't bring up the subject, and don't plan to, since I didn't really get to explain my side of where the rose came from.  The one main question I had to my husband was, "if that rose is from Cheri, where is the rose from the Nick Fox house?"  He says the rose below the front porch is that rose, but I know it is the rose I bought at the garden sale last May.

The mystery remains. I KNOW this rose was my Nick Fox House rose. I know that my sister-in-law is not a garden person and the idea of her giving my hubby a rose in a pot to plant in our yard is definitely an odd happening. 

So here we are back at the 1, 2, 3. He's crazy, I'm crazy, he is trying to make me think I'm crazy.

So mysterious...

One Great Find

I just pointed out that Catherineholm Of Norway bowl to you the other day in the ad for Nestle Cookie Mix. And look what I found at one of our local thrift stores!

A smaller bowl than the one in that advertisement, but a thing of beauty nonetheless.

That's only the second time ever, for me - finding Catherineholm. Love it.

Barbie Patterns, Old And New

I love these old Barbie patterns!

View "C' in the pattern above is made from a handkerchief. Cute, right?

And, as for the new Barbie patterns? Well, you might want to consider picking up a copy of this book:

"Hankie Couture", written by Marsha Greenberg and published last year by Running Press. The dresses and outfits she created for fashion dolls like Barbie out of vintage handkerchiefs are nothing short of spectacular! I had a 60% off coupon for JoAnn's, and I decided I wanted a book and I was so happy to find this one there! Marsha's creations are wonderful. They just make me smile, that's all.